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Saturday, April 27, 2024 2:18 am (Paris)

• Marine Le Pen

Le Pen accuses government of abandoning French island of Mayotte

The far-right leader visited the French overseas territory on April 16. Capitalizing on local feelings of anger, concern and disappointment, she aimed to show off her defense of the island.

By  Jérôme Talpin   (Mamoudzou, Mayotte (France), special correspondent)

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Two sites have become emblematic of all of Mayotte's crises. Two places for Marine Le Pen to revive her well-honed rhetoric, mixing emotion, indignation and condemnation, in a territory where she achieved some of her best results in the 2022 French presidential election (59.10% in the second round). Visiting this French Indian Ocean department to support her Rassemblement National (RN, far-right) party's list for the June 9 European elections, led by its president Jordan Bardella, Le Pen followed her main theme: Telling the inhabitants of Mayotte that they are "those among the French who suffer the most," and that they have been "abandoned" by the government, despite the "chaos that has set in" due to illegal immigration and insecurity. These are themes that she has also transposed to the national level.

On Saturday, April 20, the president of the RN group of MPs at the Assemblée Nationale first chose to visit the stadium in the city of Mamoudzou's Cavani neighborhood, where a camp of African migrants had been dismantled; before meeting on Sunday with local residents who were continuing to man a roadblock at the Ngwézi crossroads in the south of the island. This was where, in February, demonstrators had set up three welded barriers on the road, blocking traffic to demand that a state of emergency be declared on the island.

At the head of a group of around 60 "mothers" from the Cavani citizens' collective, waving small French flags, Le Pen walked up the street alongside the stadium, ignoring the migrants from countries in Africa' Great Lakes region and Somalia: Some 200 to 500 asylum seekers and refugees who had been expelled from the sporting venue. They were now living on the streets; sleeping on the ground, on cardboard boxes, woven mats or foam mattresses; and cooking meager meals on makeshift braziers. They had no running water or toilets. During the day, they would seek out any shady spot they could find to escape the scorching sun.

'Hang in there, we're coming'

The Cavani collective has decried an "unacceptable situation," "delinquency" and "inhuman conditions." Convinced that the regional health agency "isn't telling the whole story," the residents have become worried about the risk of a cholera epidemic brought by these migrants who arrived in kwassa-kwassa – small boats – via the neighboring island nation of the Comoros. Addressing the members of this neighborhood collective, Le Pen laid the blame on France's successive governments. She pointed out that the people of Mayotte "accept things that no other French person would accept." According to the far-right MP, the situation in front of the Cavani stadium would be the result of "bad decisions" made by the government, which was "incapable of showing authority."

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The rise and rise of France’s far-right Marine Le Pen

National Rally leader is closing gap on Emmanuel Macron in polls for this month’s presidential election

F rom her housing estate in northern Marseille, Elisabeth, 68, who once voted for the left, will return a ballot for the far-right Marine Le Pen in the French presidential election this month. “People used to think Marine was nasty,” she said. “Now they realise she’s not. Other politicians are taking her ideas. They all talk like her now.”

Elisabeth left school at 16 and worked at a shoemaker’s, in factories and as a housekeeper, but her €800 pension barely covers bills and food. “I live on credit, overdrawn by the middle of the month,” she said. “I make a weak stew and it lasts me three days. But Le Pen will cut taxes and put money in our pockets.” She agrees with Le Pen’s anti-immigration stance. She feels “Europeans” are becoming outnumbered in multi-ethnic northern Marseille and worries about crime. “I’ve been mugged twice, once for a necklace, once for a cigarette,” she said. Society is tense and divided, she feels, but Le Pen will “calm things down”.

After a decade spent trying to detoxify the jack-booted image of the far-right, anti-immigration party she took over from her father, Le Pen this week reached her highest poll ratings and popularity. Polls show her not only reaching the second round final against the centrist president Emmanuel Macron on 24 April, but significantly closing the gap. An Ifop poll alarmed Macron’s camp by showing her reaching 47% against his 53%, the narrowest margin yet and far closer than when he defeated her with 66% in 2017.

Political opponents still decry Le Pen’s National Rally party as racist, xenophobic, antisemitic and anti-Muslim, but polls show that, while society once rejected her as the “devil” of the republic, public perception of her has softened. On her third presidential bid, Le Pen, 53, has risen to become the second favourite political personality in France behind Macron’s former prime minister Edouard Philippe in Elabe’ s latest monthly survey.

Le Pen’s focus on the cost of living – and the rising energy prices likely to be exacerbated by the war in Ukraine – has allowed her to shrug off her past connections to Vladimir Putin, whom she visited in 2017. “She’s dangerous,” the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, said last week. “She could win this presidential election.” On a walkabout in western France , Macron warned against people “looking away” from the reality of her radical programme and “finding her nicer”.

The presidential election campaign has been the most far-right in France’s modern history. In addition to Le Pen, another far-right candidate emerged: the former TV pundit Eric Zemmour , who has convictions for inciting racial hatred. Using more inflammatory language than Le Pen, he has anchored the discredited conspiracy theory of the “great replacement” - in which he claims local French populations could be replaced by newcomers, making France a majority Muslim country on the verge of civil war – in mainstream debate. Between them, Le Pen and Zemmour have about 30% of the vote in the first-round polls. Les Républicains on the traditional right, and their struggling candidate, Valérie Pécresse , have ramped up their rhetoric on immigration as they compete with Zemmour.

Instead of damaging Le Pen, Zemmour has strengthened her. “Something quite amazing happened during this campaign. The radicality of Eric Zemmour has softened the image of Marine Le Pen,” said Bruno Cautrès, a political scientist at Sciences-Po university in Paris. “She’s less radical to many voters, she looks less aggressive than Eric Zemmour, she’s got more respectability.”

Le Pen’s hardline manifesto policies have not changed, and overlap with Zemmour’s. She has promised a referendum on immigration and a rewrite of the constitution to ensure “France for the French” — where native French people would be prioritised over non-French people for welfare benefits, housing, jobs and healthcare. The Muslim headscarf, which she calls “a uniform of totalitarian ideology”, would be banned from the streets and all public places.

Le Pen’s key themes – concerns over insecurity and crime, a feeling of decline and social inequality, and her linking those issues to immigration and a percieved threat of Islamism – have taken up more space in the public debate in recent years.

“The ideas we’ve always fought for have become the majority opinion,” said Jordan Bardella, 26, the rising star of the party and its current caretaker leader, as he met voters in Marseille. Queueing to see him, a retired school psychologist from the French Riviera said: “My sister is a doctor, my brother-in-law an architect, we’re not the type of family that used to vote Le Pen, but these days it’s easier to be open about it.”

Raphaël Llorca, a communications consultant at the Fondation Jean Jaurès thinktank and the author of a book on Le Pen and Zemmour, The New Masks of the Far-right , said the tone of Le Pen’s campaign was deliberately different this year.

“In previous campaigns, she was very populist, presenting ‘the people versus the elite’ in a way that was very aggressive and virulent. Her political strategy was to harness all different types of anger,” he said. “Now, her view is that division and conflict won’t work. Her political reading of Macronism is that Emmanuel Macron is a president who has divided people – there have been the [anti-government] gilets jaunes protests, demonstrations over the Covid health pass. She calls him the ‘president of chaos’ and says she can ‘calm’ things. It’s very different. She’s seeking to demobilise the voters who usually turn out to stop her. She wants to anaesthetise society’s reflexes against the far right, neutralise her critics.”

Pollsters still consider a Le Pen presidential win unlikely, but, for the first time, some analysts see it as an outside possibility. Uncertainties remain over the rate of abstention and whether leftwing voters would once again turn out in high numbers to vote for Macron in order to keep her out.

To soften her image, Le Pen often references her love of Bengal cats and recent diploma to become a breeder. “She’s transformed herself into a kindly cat breeder? Lies!” said Macron’s economy minister, Bruno Le Maire, at a recent rally, adding that Le Pen had always pushed “a discourse of hate”.

• French presidential election 2022
• Marine Le Pen
• The far right

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Decoding Marine Le Pen's Rhetoric is the parent website for the book  Marine Le Pen prise aux mots. Décryptage du nouveau discours frontiste  ( Seuil , 2014).

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Webauth login, martial foucault: the politics of emotion.

Martial Foucault, Professor, Institute of Political Science (Sciences Po), Paris:

The politics of emotions: france’s responses to the 2015 terrorist attacks, tuesday april 12, 5:30-7pm, room: german library, room 252, building 260 .

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Envoyé Special: Documentary Crew visits Stanford to track Marine Le Pen's Discourse

In October 2015, documentary film maker Elise Le Guevel and her crew flew in from Paris to visit Stanford. Their goal: to understand better how Marine Le Pen has reformed her discourse by interviewing the team behind Marine Le Pen prise aux mots and the vast corpus of texts and analysis they produced. 

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Comparative Analysis: How to Speak about Charlie Hebdo (Valls and Le Pen)

Word Cloud of Marine Le Pen's speech on January 16, 2015, following the Charlie Hebdo and Hypercasher terrorist attacks. 

The lexical field is dominated by Islamism, fundamentalism and creates a network of guilt by association: "communautarisme", "immigration", "étrangère" are linked by lexical proximity to the pejorative "radical", "terroriste", "fundamentaliste", "djhiadiste".

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Michel Wieviorka: Keeping Cool (Raison Garder)

A Tribune of sociologist Michel Wieviorka on the "rise" of the National Front and its coverage in the media:

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Explaining the Rise of the NF: Political Rhetoric or Cultural Insecurity? A Review by Arthur Goldhammer (Harvard University)

Arthur Goldhammer (Harvard). “Explaining the Rise of the Front National: Political Rhetoric or Cultural Insecurity?” French Politics, Culture, & Society , vol. 33, Issue 22 (Summer 2015): 145-147.

A Review of:

Laurent Bouvet, L’Insécurité culturelle (Paris: Fayard, 2015).

Cécile Alduy and Stéphane Wahnich, Marine Le Pen prise aux mots: Décryptage  du nouveau discours frontiste (Paris: Seuil, 2015).

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Long after his death, Jean-Marie Le Pen’s words will continue to echo in his daughter’s voice.

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Stanford scholar unpacks the rhetoric behind extremist politician's mainstream success

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French politician Marine Le Pen carried her father's right-wing fringe political party to first place in the country's latest elections for European Parliament.

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Ecouter ici

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«Les choix de Marine Le Pen validés par le vote»

«Ce n’est peut-être pas la victoire escomptée pour le FN, mais pour Marine Le Pen , c’est encore un coup gagnant qui valide dans les urnes ses choix opérés depuis qu’elle a accédé à la présidence du parti en 2011.» Jean-Yves Camus, spécialiste du Front national (FN), décortique avec soin les résultats du 1er tour des élections départementales.

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Segmented Audiences for a Nationalist Discourse: How the FN adapts its Rhetoric

«Marine Le Pen normalise le discours du parti pour le rendre présentable». Interview in newspaper  20minutes , 18.03.2015. Article and Questions by  Anne-Laëtitia Béraud:

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How Marine Le Pen managed to gain ground with youth voters – and why her success isn’t being replicated by the US right

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PhD candidate, Sciences Po

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Camille Gélix receives funding from Sciences Po Paris (PhD contract).

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Far-right candidate Marine Le Pen may have missed out on the French presidency, falling 17 pecentage points short of incumbent Emmanuel Macron in a runoff held April 24, 2022. But to characterize her campaign as a total loss would be missing an essential point: with nearly 41.2% of the vote, a far-right contender came closer to securing the French presidency than at any point in the past.

She outperformed the previous two times that her party got through to the final round. In 2017, Le Pen received only 33.9% of the vote . Her father and predecessor as head of the Front National – now rebranded as Rassemblement National, or National Rally – won just 17.8% of the vote in the 2002 runoff.

Marine Le Pen is enjoying an undeniable, upward trend in popularity.

Chasing the youth vote

The growth in support for France’s far right isn’t taking place in a vacuum. A wave of populist sentiment has swept across much of Europe and North America in the last few years. Moreover, the French and American far right have demonstrated a mutual admiration and exchange of strategies . The French right’s fight against “wokisme” echoes American conservative discourse around critical race theory. Similarly, the American right has drawn inspiration from French writer Renaud Camus’ white nationalist idea of a “ grand remplacement ,” which holds that white populations and culture are being replaced by non-white, non-Christian people.

But the results of the recent election show something beyond a general growth in support for the far right – something that is happening on both sides of the Atlantic. The French right is succeeding in one key demographic that the American right has seemingly failed to capture : youth voters.

Analysis of the presidential runoff shows that 49% of 25-34 year olds who voted opted for Le Pen – compared to just over 41% of the general population, and 29% of voters over 70.

This wasn’t always the case. Like in the United States , youth voters in France have historically supported progressive and left-leaning platforms. The Front National – which was established as an explicitly neo-fascist, anti-immigrant party , and whose founder Jean-Marie Le Pen has been repeatedly convicted by French courts for inciting racial hatred – was especially far from youth politics.

Indeed, until recently, the French far right’s relation to the under-30 crowd could be summarized in the words of punk rock group Bérurier Noir, which famously sang during a 1989 concert that “la jeunesse emmerde le Front National” – “young people piss off the Front National.”

This lyric became a rallying cry during the 2002 elections, as youth voters turned out in overwhelming numbers – both to the ballot box and to the streets in protest – when the far right advanced to the runoffs for the first time in the Front National’s history.

Rebranding the right

The tide began to change when Marine Le Pen took control of the Front National from her father in 2011. Over the last decade, she has undertaken a conscious process of “ de-demonizing ” the party in an effort to distance itself from its antisemitic past . Instead, Le Pen wants to present herself as a mainstream candidate .

While, as many point out , many of the policies of Rassemblement National aren’t substantively different from their far-right roots, the party has tried to appeal to young voters by reframing its stances on issues like the environment and feminism . Le Pen retreated from her previous climate skepticism and embraced a program of so-called nationalist ecology , which advocates for energy independence and French-made products. She also positioned herself as a pro-animal welfare candidate by calling for stricter regulations on the meatpacking industry, and claimed to “ defend women ” by campaigning against street harassment.

Critics note that her animal welfare proposals amounted to a ban on halal and kosher meat and that her rhetoric on street harassment placed the blame on immigrant men who, according to her campaign videos, either did not know or did not respect “ French cultural codes .”

Appealing to youth

Beyond reframing, though, the Rassemblement National also proposed a number of concrete fiscal policies that target youth voters. In her 2022 presidential platform , Le Pen promised to eliminate taxes for those under 30, offer financial assistance to student workers and increase housing for students.

Le Pen and the Rassemblement National haven’t convinced everyone. It remains a primarily anti-immigrant, anti-European nationalist party that often faces accusations of Islamophobia , racism and homophobia .

When Le Pen advanced to the runoffs after the first round of voting on April 10 – barely edging out far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon – huge numbers of students turned out in protest across France, declaring that they would vote “ neither Macron, nor Le Pen .” Many young voters in 2022 abstained from voting altogether – an estimated 30% of those under 35 years old in the first round, climbing to a historic 40% in the runoff .

Declining support of GOP

In both France and the U.S. , younger generations express feelings of disinterest in and neglect by mainstream political institutions.

Yet young people in the U.S. continue to show comparatively low levels of support for right-wing authoritarianism. In 2016 and 2020 , voters age 18-29 were 10 points lower in their support for Donald Trump compared to the overall population.

So why aren’t we seeing the French trend in the U.S.?

It’s important to note that the U.S. Republican Party and the French Rassemblement National are not completely analogous, due at least in part to the fact that the U.S. is a two-party system . The Republican Party is the only viable option available to right-wing voters. In France, the Rassemblement National is one of several far-right movements, and is wholly separate from the mainstream conservative Les Républicains party.

Still, the GOP and the Rassemblement National are increasingly occupying the same political space. According to the University of Gothenburg’s V-Dem Institute, the Republican Party shifted dramatically towards illiberal rhetoric between 2002 and 2018, putting it in proximity to European far-right parties. Similarly, the GOP and the Rassemblement National received similar scores on Harvard University’s 2019 Global Party Survey in terms of opposition to ethnic minority rights and adherence to liberal democratic principles, norms and practices.

The GOP and the RN have also demonstrated a growing, mutual recognition and exchange of ideas over the last few years.

Indeed, over the last few weeks, far-right groups in France have even begun to echo U.S.-style “ Stop the Steal ” rhetoric in response to Emmanuel Macron’s vote shares.

Yet is seems unlikely that far-right segments of the Republican Party can replicate the metamorphosis that allowed Rassemblement National to appeal to youth voters.

Party structures in the U.S. are significantly more decentralized than in France. While Le Pen was able to lead the charge in “softening” her image, it’s not clear who would play that role in an American context for Republicans. Trump remains a polarizing figure within the party and seemingly shows no desire to engage in such “de-demonizing.”

And the GOP also doesn’t seem to have the political desire to “soften” its image in issues that matter most to youth voters.

A 2021 survey by the Harvard Kennedy School Institute of Politics found that young Americans list addressing climate change, health care, education, social justice and income inequality as their top priorities – several of which are difficult to reconcile with the “ culture war ” that parts of the GOP have made a core part of their mandates .

By and large, major Republican officials remain publicly skeptical that climate change exists, and vote against Democratic-led climate proposals as too expensive or unnecessary.

The Rassemblement National’s youth-oriented fiscal policies – which often involve direct financial assistance for students, in a distinct break from the party’s “ Reaganomics” under Jean-Marie Le Pen in the 1980s – run counter to a GOP that opposes solutions to the student debt crisis .

The GOP seems to be keenly aware of its declining support among youth voters . Yet Republican efforts seem more geared toward tactics such as diluting the vote of districts with college campuses, particularly historically Black colleges and universities , and voter ID laws that would make it more difficult for young people to vote. In contrast, Le Pen openly courted youth voters and dedicated a large part of her final rally before the April 24 runoff to calling on young people to get out and vote.

Part of the GOP approach can likely be ascribed to the fact that young voters are becoming increasingly racially diverse and that young adults of color are an especially strong base for Democratic candidates. But GOP support is dropping among white youths , too.

It took years for Le Pen’s “de-demonization” among youth voters to start paying dividends – and even then, it was insufficient to propel her to electoral victory. The U.S. will, in a few months, undergo its own elections with the 2022 midterms. It’s far from certain that young people in the U.S. will continue to throw their support behind Democratic candidates. But who they cast their ballot for, and whether they turn out to vote at all, will show just how big the gap is between the Rassemblement National and the GOP in appealing to a younger electorate.

[ The Conversation’s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. Sign up for Politics Weekly .]

• Republicans
• Marine Le Pen
• Jean-Marie Le Pen
• Youth voters
• French presidential election
• 2022 US midterm elections

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Potential far-right victory in France seen as threat to EU

FILE - French far-right candidate Marine Le Pen leaves her campaign headquarters in Paris, Monday, April 11, 2022. French President Emmanuel Macron, the incumbent president with strong pro-European views, and Marine Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist, couldn’t have more radically opposed visions of the EU. A win for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential race would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the European Union. (AP Photo/Francois Mori, File)

FILE - Current French President and centrist presidential candidate for reelection Emmanuel Macron gestures at his election night headquarters Sunday, April 10, 2022 in Paris. Emmanuel Macron, the incumbent president with strong pro-European views, and Marine Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist, couldn’t have more radically opposed visions of the EU. A win for far-right candidate Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential race would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the European Union. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus, File)

Current French President and centrist presidential candidate for reelection Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a campaign rally, in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 . Macron, with strong pro-European views, and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist, are facing each other in the presidential runoff on April 24. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen looks on during a press conference Tuesday, April 12, 2022 in Vernon, west of Paris. The thought of an extreme-right leader standing at the helm of the European Union would be abhorrent to most in the 27-nation bloc. But if Emmanuel Macron falters in the April 24 French presidential elections, it might be two weeks away. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Current French President and centrist presidential candidate for reelection Emmanuel Macron shakes hands during a campaign rally in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 . Macron, with strong pro-European views, and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist, are facing each other in the presidential runoff on April 24. (Eliot Blondet/Pool via AP)

Current French President and centrist presidential candidate for reelection Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a campaign rally in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 . Macron, with strong pro-European views, and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist, are facing each other in the presidential runoff on April 24. (Eliot Blondet/Pool via AP)

Current French President and centrist presidential candidate for reelection Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a campaign rally in Strasbourg, eastern France, Tuesday, April 12, 2022 . Macron, with strong pro-European views, and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen, an anti-immigration nationalist, are facing each other in the presidential runoff on April 24. (AP Photo/Jean-Francois Badias)

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STRASBOURG, France (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron and extreme-right politician Marine Le Pen voiced two radically opposed visions of Europe on Tuesday: one resolutely advocating for the bloc of 27 nations, the other defending her French nationalist mottos.

If Macron falters in France’s April 24 presidential runoff between the two, the far-right could be at the helm of the European Union, an abhorrent idea to most leaders in the bloc.

Experts say a win for Le Pen would have immense repercussions on the functioning of the EU. Not only would her coming to power damage the democratic values and commercial rules of the bloc, but it would also threaten the EU’s common front and sanctions in response to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Macron headed on Tuesday to Strasbourg, the seat of the EU parliament, to speak about France’s role in Europe. All polls show he is the favorite in the runoff, but Le Pen has significantly narrowed the gap compared to when Macron handily won five years ago.

“Nationalism is war,” Macron warned in front of thousands of supporters waiving French and European flags.

At a time when “war is back on the European continent ... it’s through Europe that we will build peace,” he said, welcoming a big Ukrainian flag being waived in front of the stage.

“Europe is a treasure we patiently built, but which will also allow us to respond to the challenges of the future,” he added.

The outdoor rally, near the city’s 12th-century cathedral, was closed by the French and the European anthems.

France has always stood at the heart of the EU — a founding member that has partnered with neighbor and historical rival Germany to turn the bloc into an economic giant and an icon of Western values. To hand that vaunted perch to a far-right politician would be bad enough. But, as coincidence would have it, France also holds the EU’s rotating six-month presidency this spring, which also allows it to speak with the power of the 27.

It is a pedestal few want to offer to Le Pen. The National Rally leader wants to establish national border controls on imports and people, reduce the French contribution to the EU budget and cease to recognize that European law has primacy over national law.

She has proposed removing taxes on hundreds of goods and wants to reduce taxes on fuel — which would go against the EU’s free market rules and efforts to fight climate change.

Although Le Pen has excised Frexit from her platform, her hostility toward the EU is still clear. Speaking to France Inter radio, Le Pen said Tuesday that “a large majority of French people no longer want the European Union as it exists today.” She accused the bloc of acting “in an absolutely anti-democratic way.”

She refuted critics’ charges that her policies would amount to a French exit from the EU. Instead, she said the EU can be changed “from within.”

Macron accused Le Pen of speaking “nonsense.”

“She explains that she won’t pay the bill for the (EU) club, that she will change the rules, but will change the rules alone” he said. “It means she wants to get out (of the EU) but doesn’t dare say it anymore.”

Jean-Claude Piris, who served as a legal counsel to the European Council, said a victory for Le Pen would have the effect of an “earthquake.”

“She is in favor of a form of economic patriotism with state aids, which is contrary to the rules of the single market,” Piris told The Associated Press.

“She wants to modify the French constitution by giving preference to the French, by suppressing the right of the soil, the right of asylum,” which would be “totally incompatible with the values of the European treaties,” Piris added.

Piris said Le Pen would also threaten the unanimity of the bloc’s 27 nations on the sanctions they have adopted so far against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine. She could prevent further measures being adopted. The bloc is currently mulling whether to add further restrictions on oil imports from Russia.

Le Pen has built close links with the Kremlin over the years. In her previous bid to become the French president in 2017, she called for strong security ties with Moscow to jointly combat radical Islamic groups. She also pledged to recognize Crimea — the peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014 — as part of Russia.

Le Pen acknowledged Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “partially” changed her views about Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was “wrong” and expressing her support for the Ukrainian people and refugees.

A report from the Center for European Reform highlighted how Le Pen could go down the same road as Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawiecki in throwing up roadblocks for Brussels wherever she can to further slow the EU’s already cumbersome decision-making.

“The difference is that France ... is indispensable to the EU,” the report stressed, saying the consequences would be “political chaos.”

Macron made a similar parallel with Hungary, warning that the far-right Le Pen would do the same thing that he said is happening in Budapest: “methodically, gradually reducing and deteriorating rights.”

CER experts also believe that Le Pen’s policies would clash with the bloc’s climate goals. Le Pen is in favor of expanding nuclear and several non-governmental groups have warned that she would slow down the transition toward renewable energy.

On top of that, the traditional French-German tandem would be undermined, with German Socialist chancellor Olaf Scholz highly unlikely to reach any compromise with Le Pen.

Luxembourg’s long-serving foreign minister, Jean Asselborn, said Le Pen as French president “would put us on a totally different track in the essence of the European Union.”

“The French must prevent that,” he said.

Casert and Petrequin reported from Brussels. Colleen Barry in Milan, Italy, and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed.

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• Marine Le Pen

Pourquoi l’Outre-Mer a voté Marine Le Pen

Lors du second tour de l’élection présidentielle, la candidate d’extrême droite est arrivée en tête dans plusieurs territoires d’outre-mer. Pour certains d’entre eux, il s’agit d’un vote anti-Macron, explique le journal britannique “The Financial Times”.

Les territoires d’outre-mer ont souvent “manifesté clairement” leur aversion pour les candidats présidentiels d’extrême droite, explique le quotidien britannique The Financial Times. Pourtant, le 24 avril, Marine Le Pen y a remporté certaines de ses plus solides victoires, indique le journal économique de référence.

Il faut d’abord y voir une contestation de la politique d’ Emmanuel Macron , poursuit le Financial Times. Au premier tour, c’est Jean-Luc Mélenchon qui était en tête dans la plupart de ces territoires. Marine Le Pen a ensuite devancé le président, élu au second tour, en Guadeloupe, en Martinique et en Guyane française avec plus de 60 % des votes en sa faveur. Le candidat d’extrême gauche avait pourtant appelé à ne pas voter pour le Rassemblement national, mais cela n’a pas suffi : “Certains de ses électeurs sont manifestement passés du côté de Le Pen.”

Les conséquences d’une “perte de confiance”

“L’usage massif de chlordécone [ … ] a provoqué une crise de santé publique, et la pandémie a mis en lumière le faible taux de lits d’urgence disponibles dans les territoires par rapport à la métropole”, explique le titre, résumant les propos de Mikaa Mered, secrétaire général de la chaire Outre-Mer de Sciences Po. Ce dernier évoque une “perte de confiance” en l’État français, comme en témoigne la défiance à l’égard du vaccin contre le Covid-19 en Outre-Mer.

À Mayotte, où Marine Le Pen a raflé 59,1 % des voix, c’est la problématique de la sécurité liée à l’ immigration clandestine − notamment en provenance des Comores voisines − qui a poussé les électeurs vers l’extrême droite.

Dans le Pacifique, à l’inverse, les habitants de Nouvelle-Calédonie ont majoritairement voté pour Emmanuel Macron. La forte abstention a grandement favorisé le président en place, et les votants les plus mobilisés étaient “probablement” des anti-indépendantistes souhaitant afficher leur soutien à l’État.

Le Financial Times se penche également sur la situation de la Corse, où il observe une dynamique similaire à celle des territoires d’outre-mer. Récemment secouée par des manifestations autonomistes et indépendantistes, l’île méditerranéenne a placé Marine Le Pen devant le président en exercice, au premier comme au second tour.

Des résultats qui contrastent avec la visite de Jean-Marie Le Pen en Martinique, en décembre 1987. Des manifestations avaient empêché l’atterrissage de l’avion du père de l’ex-candidate, se souvient le quotidien britannique.

Courrier international

Présidentielle 2022. Macron réélu : les analyses de la presse étrangère

Vu d’Espagne. Les ravages du Covid en outre-mer révèlent la fracture avec la France métropolitaine

Présidentielle. Le “mystère de Mayotte”, l’archipel “pauvre et musulman” où Le Pen arrive en tête des votes

En Nouvelle-Calédonie, le “non” à l’indépendance impose de savoir vivre ensemble autrement

«Il facilite le travail de Marine Le Pen» : la surenchère risquée de Jean-Luc Mélenchon

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DÉCRYPTAGE - Beaucoup estiment à gauche que Jean-Luc Mélenchon a atteint un point de non-retour qui l’empêchera d’agréger le vote utile en 2027.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon a eu les honneurs du grand amphithéâtre de Sciences Po Paris , où il s’est exprimé lundi soir devant plusieurs centaines d’étudiants acquis à sa cause. La prise de parole était attendue après la polémique provoquée la semaine dernière par l’annulation de sa «   conférence   » sur la Palestine à l’université de Lille. La grogne des Insoumis en réaction à ce qu’ils ont aussitôt qualifié de « censure » a été si sonore que le chef de l’État lui-même s’est vu obligé de réagir depuis un sommet européen, à Bruxelles. « Je ne partage pas la vision des choses (…) de Jean-Luc Mélenchon, mais je pense que c’est important qu’il puisse exprimer sa voix » , a déclaré Emmanuel Macron.

Non satisfait de ce soutien de choix, Jean-Luc Mélenchon s’est enflammé contre « un abus de pouvoir de république bananière » , dénonçant depuis une estrade de fortune montée sur une petite place de Lille le « franchissement de seuil incroyable de violence politique » dont il considère être la victime. Dans sa…

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le 25/04/2024 à 12:04

risqué ? pour qui ? pour l'auteur de l'article ? le risque c'est de se retrouver avec un Macron bis , incompétentbet socialiste pour dépenser l'argent magique

tontonminou 1

le 25/04/2024 à 10:38

Quand il eructe il ressemble à un gros cochon

le 24/04/2024 à 15:59

La haine personnifiée et la détestation de la France de notre enfance, qu'on qualifiait de "Douce France".

«Fabius menace l’État de droit» : passe d’armes entre Marine Le Pen et le président du Conseil constitutionnel

Invité de LCI dimanche soir, le premier des Sages de la Rue de Montpensier avait considéré que son institution est «la cible», entre autres, du parti à la flamme parce qu’«on veut menacer l’État de droit».

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Le Pen would beat Macron if French presidential vote repeated: poll

Paris (AFP) – French far-right leader Marine Le Pen would beat Emmanuel Macron if the presidential election of last year were repeated now, a shock poll suggested Wednesday on the eve of fresh protests against the government's pension reform.

Issued on: 05/04/2023 - 19:38 Modified: 05/04/2023 - 19:36

The survey from the Elabe group for the BFM TV channel indicated Le Pen would score 55 percent and President Macron 45 percent if they faced each other in a run-off vote.

Last April, Macron defeated Le Pen by a margin of 58.5 percent to 41.5 percent to become the first French president to win a second term in two decades.

"Emmanuel Macron would struggle to retain his electorate, only seven out of 10 would vote for him again under this hypothesis," Bernard Sananes, head of Elabe, told BFM. "And the blocking vote (against the far-right) would be much lower."

He said Le Pen's gains were "spectacular" and "she would progress in all electoral categories."

Sananes stressed that the polling was hypothetical and the results should not be over-interpreted, given that the next presidential election is four years away and Macron will be ineligible to run again.

But the results give a snapshot of changing dynamics in French politics, with Le Pen widely seen as the biggest winner from months of protests over Macron's unpopular bid to raise the retirement age to 64 from 62 currently.

Far-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, who has backed protesters and strikers, has lost support, the Elabe poll and another on Monday by the Ifop-Fiducial survey group suggested.

The Ifop-Fiducial survey group also found a sharp increase in support for Le Pen, who has made clear she intends to stand for president for a fourth time in 2027.

Politicians across the spectrum have repeatedly warned in recent months that the 54-year-old stands to gain from the turmoil sweeping the country, as well as longstanding concerns about crime and immigration.

Le Pen has kept a relatively low-profile during huge protests and strikes, keeping her public statements to a minimum and maintaining discipline among her 88 MPs in parliament who form the largest single opposition group.

"At least I've succeeded in winning over my political opponents," Le Pen quipped to AFP in an interview last month. "They seem to spend their lives telling everyone that I will be the next president."

The prospect of the far-right leader succeeding Macron at the next election in 2027 is said by allies to gnaw at the 45-year-old president.

"It's the issue that haunts Emmanuel," a senior lawmaker who knows the president well told AFP recently.

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